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Power Presentations can make or break your success in business.

If you are looking for real results from your presentations, speeches and media appearances you need to listen to my interview on The Profit Express on 88.7 FM WRHU with Jess Todtfeld President of Success in Media, Inc. Jess is one of the leading business and media training authorities in America.

Jess shared how people don’t buy what you do; rather they buy why you do it. In order to create a Power Presentation you have to share why you are doing it.

It is all about telling your story to attract your audience’s attention. Jess and I discussed why people should listen to you. It is all about crafting your message so your customers care enough to listen.

Once you craft your message you then have to focus on your delivery. Jess said, “We tend to strip out the story and do a data dump.” What happens too often in 2016 is people rely on PowerPoint.

Once people start to cycle through the PowerPoint slides they lose their audience. People know it doesn’t work but they still do it anyway. Jess went on to say how people feel compelled to put everything they know on the screen and read it to the audience.

After crafting your story and delivery, Jess said, “You have to get to know your audience. Whether it is an audience of one or a thousand you have to know what they are there for.”

You get to know your audience by listening. That is a big factor in creating Power Presentations. Why are they there? What are they hoping to get from your presentation?

Jess Todtfeld brings with him 13 years of experience as a Television Producer on the National Level for networks including NBC, ABC, and FOX. He was also part of the team that launched “The O’Reilly Factor” and “Fox & Friends.” You can learn more about Jess by visiting his website.

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Overtime Rules

To discuss the big changes to overtime rules and minimum wage I recently interviewed Small Business and Payroll Expert Rob Basso to share his take on how Americans will be paid in 2016. Rob is the owner of Advantage Payroll and author of the Everyday Entrepreneur.

The changes announced by the Department of Labor will impact how 4 million currently exempt employees will now be eligible to receive overtime pay.

Is it a great thing? Well maybe or maybe not. What will it mean to you? Will you be able to make more money if you work longer hours? You may end up on the other end of the equation. How? You might be burdened with doing more work to alleviate the overtime burden to your employer.

Will it encourage employers to shift workloads to an exempt co-worker to avoid paying you additional overtime?

For many small businesses, colleges, and nonprofit organizations, the new overtime requirements present a difficult challenge. Rather than provide employees with increased pay, many businesses may opt instead to reclassify employees as nonexempt and restrict their work hours to no more than 40 per week.

2016 will also see the new minimum wage law. What impact will it have on small businesses hiring and expanding?

In talking to his clients Rob Basso said that, “Many small business owners would prefer to have a higher wage for their employees. The problem is how do business owners pay for it? The two most likely ways business owners will pay for the increased wage is through a cut to profits or an increase in costs to their customers.” Rob went on to say that he feels part of the impact can be less employees being hired than if the wage remained lower.

We would all like workers to have a better working wage – but at what cost? If less people are hired and businesses are less competitive – who wins?

Workplace Disengagement

If you don’t want to go to work today you are in good company. 7 out of 10 Americans are not happy at work. That’s right, 70% of American’s don’t like their jobs.

In 2013 The Gallup Organization Workplace Survey revealed that only 30 percent of US workers like their job.

Research is showing that disengagement is costing Corporate America $500 billion annually in lost productivity. Are you one of the 70% of people who don’t like work?

What can be done? If you are a manager or employee you will want to hear my interview on The Profit Express (WRHU – FM, NY) with Engagement Evangelist – Ruth Ross . Ruth took her 30 years of corporate experience as an HR executive at numerous Fortune 100 companies and became an evangelist, author and speaker.

What about the other 70 percent? That’s the percentage of the workforce that said they felt disengaged, with 18 percent of these employees identified as actively disengaged. In other words the 18% are the ones completely checked out.

How should you look at workplace disengagement? Let’s look at 3 levels of engagement.

Highly engaged workers produce more in less time, contribute to the bottom line, and stay with their company longer. They are great unfortunately they are only 30% of your workforce.

Disengaged employees get little satisfaction out of their work and are not loyal to the organization.

Actively disengaged workers are very difficult to turn around and have burned too many bridges to ever be successful. So how would you rate yourself?

Nearly 1 in 5 of your workers are checked out and could careless about their job other than collecting a paycheck.

Employees who have “checked out” are costing you and your company big bucks. Make sure to listen to my interview with Ruth Ross!

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Non-profits need to sell their ideas like any other business. Listen to my interview with Karen Suero as we chat about the business of Non-profits on The Profit Express. Karen has helped Nonprofit’s grow for over 15 years. Karen’s clients include the Archdiocese of NY and Philadelphia and Pace University.

Karen and I explore how non-profits can connect with donors and the community. We also discuss how nonprofit organizations can grow with fundraising.